In Greece, especially in earlier times, capture in war, piracy, and kidnapping were common causes of slavery,[131] and the condition was hereditary. Other legitimate sources were exposure of infants, except at Thebes,[132] and sale of children by their parents.[133] At Athens insolvent debtors became the slaves of their creditors up to the time of Solon;[134] and metics—that is, resident aliens—who did not discharge the obligations imposed on them by the State, were sold as slaves, as were also foreigners who had fraudulently possessed themselves of the rights of citizens.[135] At least in a later age the majority of slaves seem to have been of barbarian origin;[136] indeed, after the Peloponnesian war the principle that captives taken in wars between Greek states should be ransomed and not enslaved was commonly recognised, though not always followed in practice.[137] As we have seen, the master had not the power of life and death over his slave.[138] At sanctuaries the latter found a refuge from cruel oppression.[139] If maltreated he could demand to be sold; and he could purchase his liberty with his peculium by agreement with his master.[140] But by manumission he only entered into an intermediate condition between slavery and complete freedom; thus, at Athens the freedman was in relation to the State a metic and in relation to his master a client.[141] Domestic slaves often lived on terms of intimacy with their masters,[142] but as a class slaves were regarded with contempt even by men like Plato and Aristotle. The former, whilst warning his hearers against insolent and unjust behaviour towards slaves, observes that they should be treated with severity, not admonished as if they were freemen, but punished, and only addressed in words of command.[143] Aristotle compares the relation of the master to his slave with that of the soul to the body and of the craftsman to his tool, and adds that there can be friendship between them only in so far as the slave is regarded not as a slave but as a fellow human being.[144] But whilst the state of slavery always entailed disgrace, the question was raised whether the master’s power over his slave was based on justice or on force, and in Greece, for the first time, we meet with the opinion that the institution of slavery is contrary to Nature, and that it is the law which, unjustly, makes one man a slave and another free.[145] However, Aristotle was no doubt in general agreement with his age when he declared that the barbarians, on account of their inferiority, are intended by Nature to be the slaves of the Greeks.[146]
[131] Wallon, Histoire de l’esclavage dans l’antiquité, i. 161 sqq. Richter, Die Sklaverei im griechischen Altertume, p. 39 sqq.
[132] Aelian, Historia varia, ii. 7.
[133] Wallon. op. cit. i. 159 sq.
[134] Plutarch, Vita Solonis, xiii. 4.
[135] Wallon, op. cit. i. 160 sq. Richter, op. cit. p. 46.
[136] Hermann-Blümner, Lehrbuch der griechischen Privatalterthümer, p. 86. Richter, op. cit. p. 48.
[137] Schmidt, Ethik der alten Griechen, ii. 204, 205, 283. Hermann-Blümner, op. cit. p. 86 sq.
[139] Wallon, op. cit. i. 310 sq. Schmidt, op. cit. ii. 218 sq. Richter, op. cit. p. 140 sq.